Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to the field of methods and apparatus for harvesting crops.
Description of Related Art
A typical field arrangement of agricultural products in a field, for example fruit trees, and a prior art harvesting method are shown in prior art FIG. 1. Fruit trees 10 are typically grown in organized orchards and further organized in rows 11 with an access lane 11a between them. Typically, the rows 11 are spaced a distance WR between six and twenty-five feet apart, with a fruit tree spacing DT of one to twenty feet between adjacent fruit trees 10 within a row 11. Fruit trees 10 typically range from six to twenty feet in height, depending on the variety and configuration of the fruit trees 10.
Generally, harvesting fruit such as apples requires a picker 12 to walk between the rows 11 and carry a ladder from fruit tree 10 to fruit tree 10, and climb up and down the ladder in order to harvest the fruit. Typically, the picker 12 will pick the fruit and put it in a basket or harvesting bag, often worn on a harness or strap, allowing the picker 12 to carry a large volume fruit while scaling the ladder.
Once the bag is full, the picker 12 walks with the picking bag to a location where a storage box 13 or storage boxes 13 are positioned, possibly in another access lane 11a, and empty fruit from the basket or harvesting bag into a storage box 13 and repeat the process. For example, picked apples are typically placed in large storage boxes 13 having dimensions of approximately 48 l×42 w×27 h (inches).
As the picker 12 moves along a row 11 harvesting fruit, a second person must move the partly full storage box 13 along the row with a tractor 14, forklift, or other carriage, so that the storage box 13 is closer to the picker 12, and walking distance between the fruit tree 10 the picker 12 is harvesting and the storage box 13 is minimized. The storage box 13 may be moved up to five times or more, depending on the fruit load on the fruit trees 10, and the picker's 12 location relative to the location of the storage boxes 13 in the access lane 11a. It will be apparent to the reader that this harvesting process is iterative and largely manual, and therefore may be very labor intensive and time consuming, particularly in large orchards.
The person moving the storage boxes 13 as they are filled must also supply empty storage boxes 13, and remove full storage boxes 13 as needed so the harvesting operation may proceed in a continuous manner. Moving the storage boxes 13 is also very labor intensive and involves many additional steps, all of which may potentially damage the fruit when full storage boxes 13 bounce around during transport, particularly over uneven agricultural landscapes.
If fruit trees 10 have fruit above the easy reach of the picker 12, a ladder is required for the picker 12 to reach the fruit. While the picker 12 is harvesting fruit, there is significant time consumed climbing the ladder, carrying the ladder, and walking from trees 10 to storage boxes 13 to empty full picking bags into the storage boxes 13. Walking through potentially wet and muddy terrain while carrying the ladder and picking bags also poses a potential hazard to pickers 12, as a picker 12 carrying a heavy load in such conditions may slip and fall. Additionally, stabilizing a ladder on soft or wet ground may be difficult, and climbing the ladder with muddy feet poses a danger of falling from the ladder, particularly when a picker 12 must reach far from the ladder while harvesting fruit. The potential to slip and fall is increased late in the work day when pickers 12 may become tired and concentrate less on safety. The entire harvesting operation is thus extremely labor intensive and physically exhausting for the people harvesting the fruit, and poses significant risks and liability to workers and orchard owners alike.
Filling storage boxes 13 may be complicated by spot picking, wherein rows 11 of fruit trees 10 are picked multiple times, with only ripe fruit being harvested from each fruit tree 10 during each picking.
To improve the efficiency of the harvest operation, specifically in moving the storage boxes 13, various strategies have been employed.
The traditional strategy for organizing storage boxes 13 is to pick storage boxes 13 up one at a time, and move individual storage boxes 13 along the access lane 11a with a tractor 14 equipped with fork sets at one end, or both ends, of the tractor.
Prior art FIG. 2 illustrates a harvesting operation in which a multiple storage box 13 movement strategy is implemented. The multiple storage box 13 movement strategy entails moving multiple storage boxes 13 in groups, typically transported with a self-loading trailer 16. In this strategy, single or multiple storage boxes 13 on the self-loading trailer 16 may be continuously moved using a tractor 14, or other prime mover.
Alternatively, the storage boxes 13 may be placed on self-propelled carts that move through the orchard, reducing the pickers 12 need to walk to fill the storage boxes 13. It is also possible for the storage boxes 13 to be slid along on the ground on a sled pulled or pushed by a tractor 14 or other prime mover.
To reduce reliance on ladders, picking platforms have been developed to provide access to the fruit above the typical height that a picker 12 can reach. These individual platforms are typically height adjustable, and may be moved perpendicular to the direction of the row 11 to accommodate trees 10 of varying heights, and rows 11 with varying spacing WR.
These methods work, but issues related to storage box 13 management still persist. Typically, it is not possible to move full storage boxes 13 around other empty or partially full storage boxes 13 in the access lane 11a because the row spacing WR is too narrow for two boxes to exist side by side in the access lane 11a without damaging either the tree 10 or the fruit on the tree 10. Therefore, when storage boxes 13 are full, the full storage boxes 13 have to be transported individually, or in groups, to the end of the access lane 11a, for later collection and transport to a warehouse or staging area.
Various solutions to this problem exist, such as having multiple empty storage boxes 13 pre-positioned in the access lane 11a. A self-loading trailer 16 then loads an empty storage box 13 from the access lane 11a, carries the storage box 13 while trees 10 are being picked, and then unloads the full storage box 13 into the access lane 11a. This strategy has two key drawbacks:
The first drawback is that the pre-positioning spacing between successive storage boxes 13 in the access lane 11a is critical. If the empty storage boxes 13 are spaced too close to each other, the self-loading trailer 16 may arrive at an empty storage box 13 before the storage boxes 13 on the self-loading trailer 16 are completely full. If the storage boxes 13 are spaced too far apart from each other, the storage boxes 13 on the self-loading trailer 16 become filled before an empty storage box 13 is available for pick up.
The second drawback of pre-positioning empty storage boxes 13 and unloading full storage boxes 13 from the self-loading trailer 16 is that pre-positioning the empty storage boxes 13 in the access lane 11a and retrieving the full storage boxes 13 from the access lane 11a is time consuming and may leave fruit in the full storage boxes 13 vulnerable to field heat, excessive moisture, insect damage, birds, rodents, or other undesirable environmental factors.
Other strategies include moving a trailer 16 with multiple storage boxes 13 along with the pickers 12 as the pickers 12 harvest fruit from trees 10 in a row 11. Once all the storage boxes 13 on the trailer 16 are full, the trailer 16 is driven to the end of the access lane 11a, reloaded with empty storage boxes 13 after removing the full storage boxes 13, and returned to where the pickers 12 are working. Alternatively, a second trailer 16 may be brought into the access lane 11a with another load of empty storage boxes 13 while the first trailer 16 is being emptied and reloaded. This strategy requires the pickers 12 to wait for storage boxes 13 while the trailer 16 is being reloaded. Alternatively, using two trailers 16 increases equipment costs and manpower requirements, and may also incur delays between the departure of a full trailer 16 from the picking area and the arrival of a second trailer 16 to the picking area.
None of these strategies effectively optimizes harvesting operations of agricultural products, or optimizes management of empty and full storage boxes in the field during harvesting.